Architecture of The California Missions - Site Selection and Layout

Site Selection and Layout

Although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish hierarchy, the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of "priestly whim." The founding of a mission followed longstanding rules and procedures; the paperwork involved required months, sometimes years of correspondence, and demanded the attention of virtually every level of the bureaucracy. Once empowered to erect a mission in a given area, the men assigned to it chose a specific site that featured a good water supply, plenty of wood for fires and building material, and ample fields for grazing herds and raising crops. The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their military escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes, roofed with thatch or reeds. It was these simple huts that would ultimately give way to the stone and adobe buildings which exist to this day.

The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church (iglesia). The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east–west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior illumination; the exact alignment depended on the geographic features of the particular site. Once the spot for the church was selected, its position would be marked and the remainder of the mission complex would be laid out. The priests' quarters, refectory, convento, workshops, kitchens, soldiers' and servants' living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped around a walled, open court or patio (often in the form of a quadrangle) inside which religious celebrations and other festive events often took place. The cuadrángulo was rarely a perfect square because the Fathers had no surveying instruments at their disposal and simply measured off all dimensions by foot. In the event of an attack by hostile forces the mission's inhabitants could take refuge within the quadrangle.

The basic, common elements found in all of the Alta California missions can be summarized as follows:

• Patio plan with garden or fountain;
• Solid and massive walls, piers, and buttresses;
• Arched corridors;
• Curved, pedimented gables;
• Terraced bell towers (with domes and lanterns) or bell walls (pierced bellfries);
• Wide, projecting eaves;
• Broad, undecorated wall surfaces; and
• Low, sloping tile roofs.

The Alta California missions as a whole do not incorporate the same variety or elaborateness of detail in their design exhibited in the structures erected by Spanish settlers in Arizona, Texas, and Mexico during the same period; nevertheless, they "...stand as concrete reminders of Spanish occupation and admirable examples of buildings conceived in the style and manner appropriate to the country in which they were built." Some fanciful accounts regarding the construction of the missions claimed that underground tunnels were incorporated into the design, to be used as a means of emergency egress in the event of attack; however, no historical evidence (written or physical) has ever been uncovered to support these wild assertions.